Ants and similar insects are often considered to be common nuisances to people and animals alike. They live in a social organization wherein a series of castes of ants independently work on a specific job to maintain the existence of the colony. In particular, a colony of ants typically includes three castes: winged, fertile females, or queens; wingless, infertile females, or workers; and winged males. Those ants ordinarily seen on ground around ant hills are the worker ants. Whenever a generation of queens and males matures, the ants will mate, with the males dying shortly afterward, and each fecundated queen establishing a new colony. The queen will excavate a chamber within the mound, and proceed to lay eggs for the rest of her life (up to fifteen years), fertilizing most of them with stored sperm.
As a result of their colony structure, ants are typically considered an aesthetic nuisance. In particular, ant colonies can nest in a system of tunnels in soil that are typically under a dome or hill of excavated earth, sand, or other debris. Most of these ants are mound-building, and they may construct hills above their tunnels that my have a height of up to five feet and a base that is even wider. Other species nest in cavities in dead wood, in living plant tissue, or in papery nests attached to twigs or rocks. These colonies of ants can range in size from a few dozen to half a million or more individuals. These large colonies of ants create an unpleasant aesthetic appearance in lawns, parks, and general earthen areas, especially with the hills that are produced by these ants.
In addition to aesthetic annoyances, ants can also create physical problems in their surrounding environment. For example, the ant habitats that include domes and hills can cause devastation to the grass and foliage under and near the territory occupied by the ants. In addition to damage to land, certain ants, such as fire ants, are also known to be a physical annoyance to people and animals. More specifically, fire ants are able to hurt people and animals by injecting a venom which can cause a painful burning sensation.
In response to the problems encountered by ants and related insects, several devices and methods have been designed to destroy fire ant colonies. One common method is the use of pesticides that are scattered amongst the colony to kill the ants. While effective in killing ants, such pesticides often also have undesirable secondary effects, such as harming surrounding vegetation of the environment and even harming people and animals near the area containing the pesticide. Consequently, other mechanical designs have also been conceived to entrap and kill ants. One such example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,078, which issued on Feb. 17, 1998 to Gerrard Therrien. This patent discloses a device that is used to attract ants into an area proximate a container and then entrap the ants in the container. To attract the ants, the inventor deposits a sticky composition such as molasses or gear oil, such that the ants will be attracted to the top surface of the container. An actuator assembly thereby vibrates the container, such that the ants are momentarily trapped in the container. However, a problem with such a design is that the ants can potentially escape the container if the user does not restrict the container opening within a certain period of time. Furthermore, the ants that escape remain the same healthy condition as when they entered the container.
Consequently, the prior art has failed to disclose a manner for disabling ants and thereby starving the colony that is both safe and effective.